David Gristwood's Blog

At the recent DevWeek and Microsoft Launch event, I did a VSTO session, and showed off a couple of demos, including a Buzzword Bingo sample, which got a lot of very positive reaction :-). This Word Add-In goes through a document, and adds some random management buzzwords to the end of sentences. Using Visual Studio 2008 its really easy to build Microsoft Office add-ins, and this sample took me just a few hours to code from scratch, and it's been one of the most fun projects I have done for a while.

The phrases it uses were all collected from one of my fellow team mates, who shall remain nameless, from his emails and phone calls. Examples include:

• is this a palatable ask
• lets make sure we get ahead of the curve
• some pre-thinking is required
• this is a big play for us
• ensure we have names in boxes

You get the idea. Anyway, several people have emailed me to get the source code, so I have uploaded it to our team skydrive. Enjoy!

If you are doing Microsoft Office development (which includes SharePoint, Open XML, VSTO, etc), or thinking about it, then you should be going to the Office Developers Conference (ODC) in San Jose next month (Feb 10th - 13th, to be exact). More details from the ODC 2008 web site

For me, here are a few of the highlights:

• Opening keynote by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates (one of the last in his full time role at Microsoft)
• A whole host of technical sessions (over 70) covering everything from Office add-ins to SharePoint, via Silverlight, software + services, unified comms, Open XML and a whole lot more
• A chance to meet, talk and network with other developers doing Office development
• The opportunity to understand the Microsoft roadmap around Office and think about the whole subject of building and designing Office Business Applications (OBAs)
• Enter the "Office Business Applications - 1st Annual OBA Solution of the Year Contest"

Book now - its only a few weeks away . . .

A Silverlight Christmas card - Season's Greetings from Microsoft UK

Over the last year I've hosted a number of events to Microsoft partners about Open XML, so it's great to see that, here in the UK, a number of Microsoft Gold and Certified Partners have already taken the opportunity to profile their great work on the Office System Solution Directory.

If, as a Microsoft Partner, you are currently building a solution that uses Open XML, then we want to make sure that everyone knows about it, and as an added incentive, we will be giving away ten Xbox 360™ to the most interesting and innovative use of Open XML.

Full details of the competition are on our "Microsoft UK Developer & Platform ISV Community Team" site at http://isvfasttrack.co.uk/openxml.aspx. In a nutshell, you have to register your solution at the Microsoft Office System Solution Directory, then email ukdev@microsoft.com to register for the competition, before the end of Jan 2008. Check the terms and conditions for full details.

Some of my Microsoft colleagues such as Chris Parkes and Darren Strange are also blogging about this competition, so good luck.

There are two books that I am currently recommending to developers who want to know more about SharePoint, and they are  "Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" by Ted Pattison and Daniel Larson, and "Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007" by Patrick Tisseghem.  I've read them both and have used some of the demos in my briefings and sessions.

This is my current "more information" slide I use at events:

I like the idea about putting a "face to the name" - this photo is one I took of Patrick and Ted (et al) one evening at a lovely tapas bar in Barcelona during TechEd, earlier this month.

TechEd Developer 2007 in Barcelona may be a distant memory, but we do have Virtual Teched, so if you were there, you can catch up on some of the bits and pieces you may have missed. And if you weren't there, you can get a taste of what went on. Check out the Fish Bowl Interviews for a whole host of interviews and chats, including my interview with Chris Mayo about Unified Communications.

Time flies. I have just realised that next week it's that most glamorous and glitzy European developer event of the year - TechEd. I'll be there - I am responsible for the Office and Unified Communications tracks, and I can promise you we have some great sessions and speakers lined up, so I hope to  see you there. The team caught me on camera giving my tracks a plug - check it out.

I am also helping deliver one of the sessions:

OFF403 Workflow in Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007: Deep Dive for Developers

Ted Pattison , David Gristwood

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 leverage the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to provide users with the ability to administrate and run workflow programs on documents and list items. This session takes a deep dive into the architecture that WSS builds on top of WF to integrate workflow templates and workflow associations with sites, lists and document libraries. You will also see a complete demonstration of how to create a custom SharePoint Workflow Template from scratch using Visual Studio. Along the way you will also see how to integrate both .ASPX forms as well as InfoPath forms into a custom SharePoint Workflow solution. The session will conclude with a discussion of best practices for packaging and deploying a custom workflow solution in a staging or production environment.

Thu Nov 8 09:00 - 10:15 Auditorium

I hope the "Auditorium" is one of the small cozy rooms where we can get together and have a bit of chat  . . .

Every now and then I pen a few words for the most excellent fortnightly (=biweekly) UK MSDN Flash Newsletter. Given I have been spending a lot of time recently talking to developers and architects about building on Office as a platform, I thought the MSDN Flash Newsletter would be the way to spread the word. The only problem - to say it all in less than 500 word. Well, 3 revisions later, and some additional editing from The Moth, here it is - http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/flash/20071017.htm 

And, if you don't get UK MSDN Flash Newsletter then sign up today - it's a great way to keep up with what's happening.

One evening, in a pub, having a well earned pint with Michael McClary after one of our Microsoft events, I had a brilliant idea - why not write a Microsoft Word add-in that randomly added management "buzzword bingo" phrases into a document or email. It would be kind of fun, especially in light of some of the emails that fly around our offices at time.

The big difference with this idea is that, rather than forget all about it (which is the norm, for "great pub ideas"), the next day I actually sat down with the beta 2 version of Visual Studio 2008 and wrote it.

Obviously there is so much management buzzword bingo stuff about I feel guilty about creating more, but then this is science . . .

Here is what it looks like:

You select the level of obfuscation you desire, and hit "Buzzword My Document". Here is the original text:

There are a number of DPE OBA and SharePoint events happening between now and the end of the year. It seemed to good idea to do a quick summary of what's happening, so everyone knows.

Everyone on this email is involved in at least one of the events or has expressed interested and may want to be involved or just be aware.

Once again, many thanks for your help in supporting these events. If you have any questions, or don’t have these events in your diaries, please let me know.

After applying my Buzzword Bingo on full House setting (with the new text underlined):

There are a number of DPE OBA and SharePoint events happening between now and the end of the year, and check if it is in the frame. It seemed to good idea to do a quick summary of what's happening, so everyone knows, if only to ensure we have names in boxes.

Everyone on this email is involved in at least one of the events or has expressed interested and may want to be involved or just be aware, which we need to bottom out.

Once again, many thanks for your help in supporting these events, and ensure we have ticks in all the boxes. If you have any questions, or don’t have these events in your diaries, please let me know, so just checking we are on the same page.

Most of the time it is uncannily accurate and will generally pass the Turing Test :-). I'll post the source code if anyone is interested.

Yesterday I presented a session at the Office Business Applications (OBA) Architects Council on OBA technologies. My session was all about making people aware of the ways in which they could surface information (typically back from back end line of business systems) inside Office and SharePoint, and what there is in the Microsoft technology stack to help them.

This is my slide that attempts to capture the major surface points:

Once you know where to surface information, the next step is to look at the scenarios and functionality that makes the most sense.

Darren Strange, the UK Product Manager for Microsoft Office, was also presenting, and as well as giving some great examples of partners building OBA solutions, took blogging to the next level, by photographing and and blogging about the event whilst "on stage" during the final Q&A panel. Check out the picture.

Wired magazine have a great article entitled "Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play". If you have played Halo, and are looking forward to the release of Halo 3, then this is a 'must read' article.

If you work in software development world, its very interesting for another reason - they way Bungie approach QA and testing:

"After each session Pagulayan analyzes the data for patterns that he can report to Bungie. For example, he produces snapshots of where players are located in the game at various points in time — five minutes in, one hour in, eight hours in — to show how they are advancing. If they're going too fast, the game might be too easy; too slow, and it might be too hard. He can also generate a map showing where people are dying, to identify any topographical features that might be making a battle onerous. And he can produce charts that detail how players died, which might indicate that a particular alien or gun is proving unexpectedly lethal or wankishly impotent."

Yes, its only a game, but if more companies adopted a more rigorous and imaginative approach to testing their software, we would all benefit. So read the article, and think about your own testing procedures.

I've recently picked up my copy of "Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007", and just started reading it. There are not enough books out there in SharePoint and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS), so its great to see a book like this, and even better that its such a good book. I've met the author, Patrick Tisseghem, a few times, and he's a great presenter and an excellent writer, so I can definitely recommend this one.

If you have been thinking about taking a closer look at Visual Studio 2008, now is the time to do it. The beta 2 is now out and available at msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio, so go ahead and download it, and give it a spin. There's lots of information about what new for Visual Studio 2008, from the official Microsoft site, to third parties such as Directions on Microsoft.

If you are doing any development work with Office or SharePoint, you might find the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map of interest. It's a neat little WPF application, deployed via ClickOnce, that provides lots of useful links in a much more visual style than most other such resources. Give it a go. If you have .NET 2.0 and 3.0 already installed, it only take a few moments to install.     

I've had a couple of ISVs ask me about a Windows Workflow Foundation page flow session that was delivered at TechEd last year, entitled ‘UI Page Flow by hosting WF in ASP.NET’, which was presented by Israel Hilerio. So, a year later (it was TechEd last week), what has happened to to this technology?

Well, after quite a few emails and conversations, I found out that a colleague of mine in Redmond, Matt Winkler, has been working on this, and, perhaps because of my pestering :-), he has now released details onto his blog here.

As he says "It turned out that the code we showed at TechEd wasn't going to end up in any of the product releases, so the dev team requested permission to release that code as a sample of how one can implement a generic navigation framework using WF that can support multiple UI technologies (i.e. ASP.NET and WPF).  This year, I just finished giving a talk showing this off and talking about how it will be available today!". So, check it out and I hope you find it useful.